Chief Coach of senior Indian football team Bob Houghton on Saturday criticised the scheduling of the pre-World Cup matches by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

Talking to newspersons here, he said the new format prepared by the AFC was such that half the Asian teams would be out of the qualifiers in 2007 itself without really contesting.

“It’s dreadful on several Asian countries. The new format has affected the premier leagues of many countries. We have been preparing the team well over the past few months. They were playing in tournaments.  Now this match has affected our preparations. There was no time for our national team to regroup and play. Our league stands postponed by two months. It’s ridiculous,” he charged.

Houghton also expressed his unhappiness at Chennai being selected as the venue for the home match.
“I have nothing against this city. We have not played here before. The team has played in front of a capacity crowd in New Delhi. There was a totally different positive environment there. The home advantage must be helpful for the team,” he observed. “I am saying this for hitting the headlines tomorrow”, he added.

Houghton said it was unbelievable that a vast country like India has only one stadium which fulfils the stipulations of FIFA. “The Chinese city of Shanghai has at least five stadiums of international standard,” he added.